A/N: I know, I know. If any of you are here hoping to hear news from my Naruto story, I can only say that it has been placed on the back burner. It's not the greatest news, but it is the truth. My entire drive to write left me for a few months due to family issues, and it has only been sparked by the most unlikely of scenarios. Someone randomly recommended the show Victorious to me, and I went in expecting to hate it. Instead, I fell in love with all the characters and went through the three year emotional journey in a matter of days. Left unfulfilled by the ending, I decided to take the story from a point of divergence I felt comfortable with and finishing it out myself. Despite it being a generic Nickelodeon show, the characters just grew on me, and so here we are. I hope you can find it in your heart to enjoy this fic, as I have no idea how long it will go on for, but I can promise I will try to stay as true as the characters as I can.

That said, this will be an eventual Jori fic, but it will require some significant build up to reach that point. I hope you enjoy the ride!

Edited 8/13/13 - Polished it up a bit and fixed some inconsistencies that would have popped up later.

Let Me In

Chapter 01: A "Friend" in Need

Tori groaned as she sank into the familiar seat at the front of Sikowitz's class. She leaned forward, resting her head in hands and rubbed her eyes in a desperate attempt to fight away her exhaustion. She was less than successful.

"Hey girl, what's got you out if it this morning?" The cheerfulness in Andre's voice made her want to glare at him for a moment. Didn't he see she was having a moment? She pushed the thought away with a whispered sigh and spared her best friend a small smile she knew did not reach her eyes.

"I'm fine," she told him. He raised a skeptical brow. "Trina kept me up half the night with her singing." The excuse rolled off her tongue with disturbing ease, but she only had a fleeting moment of guilt. Andre winced in sympathy.

"That girl's voice is torture," he said with a shake of his head. He reached over and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze with an infectious grin spreading on his face. Tori smiled, a real one this time, and sat up straighter. Andre was really too nice for his own good. "Does she have an audition or something?"

"No idea." Just then, as the familiar triple chime signaled the start of class, the door slammed open, startling her and everyone else in the room. Sikowitz strode in stiff, deliberate movements. His eyes were clouded over, his nose flared, and his jaw was clenched so tight that Tori was sure she could hear his teeth grinding. Her heart dropped with a touch of fear over what could make their lackadaisical teacher so upset. She wanted to look around to see if anyone had a clue what was going on, but her eyes were glued to her teacher - pacing back and forth on the classroom stage with his hands held taught behind his back.

"What are you-" Jade's voice broke the tense silence, but Sikowitz stopped dead in his tracks and sent a chilling glare her way. Tori risked a quick glance back and found a sight she had never seen before. Jade sat with her mouth hanging open, words caught in her throat, and her eyes widened comically. Tori's eyebrows skimmed her hairline in surprise. Was Jade West actually scared silent by just a look? After a moment she snapped her mouth shut and regained a neutral expression, but Tori could see the girl gripping her coffee hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

Tori could not help the tiny smirked that formed at seeing the girl rattled by something that was not Beck. Of course, her face fell and ice tore through her veins when she turned around to find Sikowitz and his glare just inches from her face. She let out a startled squeak and pushed her chair backwards too hard and went sprawling to the floor. A smattering of laughter filled the room, and Tori felt a blush rise through her neck and to her cheeks as she scrambled back into her seat. One look from Sikowitz, though, and the class fell silent once again.

Her teacher spent time looking from student to student, holding their gaze for at least a half a minute apiece. If not for the anxious anticipation, Tori would have enjoyed seeing her classmate's reactions to Sikowitz's stare – from Andre shrinking back into his seat to Robbie squeaking louder than she had – but instead she found it was getting harder to breathe as they all waited for Sikowitz to explode.

After an eternity, Sikowitz strode back up onto the stage and spun on his heel with a flourish, his scarf and oversized shirt swirling around him. He took a deep breath, and Tori tensed for the inevitable shout…

"Expectation!" Tori blinked in confusion. Sikowitz had not sounded angry. In fact, he was talking in his normal, cheery voice. The old teacher was grinning from ear to ear, and Tori's jaw hung low for half a second before she snapped it shut. It was just another of Sikowitz's strange lessons. "You all expected me to be utterly wazzed off there," he said with a laugh and a clap. "But, in reality, I'm quite cheerful!" He spread his arms wide, a grin gleaming in the classroom's light. Tori hung her head, a sigh of relief escaping from her lips. The last thing she needed was for Sikowitz of all people to be in a mood that day.

"One of the major components of acting," her teacher continued. "Is the ability to portray emotions that you do not actually feel. Now," he produced a coconut from beneath his jacket and took a sip from the straw sticking out from its side. "Drive by acting exercise! Tori! Robbie! Beck! Jade!" The four of them sprang to their feet, always willing to help the eccentric teacher, and doubly glad that he was back to normal. "Up on stage with you lot. I have a special scene in mind for you!" They all scrambled up to the stage.

"Okay, so," Sikowitz began once they were all on the stage. "Tori, Beck, you two are a married couple on the verge of divorce, and Robbie and Jade are your children stuck in the middle of your latest argument." The four of them glanced at each other, and Tori felt her heart quicken in irrational panic, but Sikowitz continued before she could process it. "Just follow your instincts and," he shuffled his feet along the floor, causing the rest of the class to join him in an impromptu drum roll. "Begin!"

"I can't believe you!" Beck started the interaction in an aggressive style that was unusual from him, his eyes alight with anger. Tori took half a second to be surprised before she lost herself in the exercise.

"You can't believe me? You're the one who's thrown this relationship to the dogs!" She accused, poking Beck in the chest for emphasis.

"That's rich!" Beck scoffed, turning on the balls of his feet and staring towards the window. "You're the one who's been sleeping with my partner!" Tori hesitated before replying, knowing she must have misheard her friend.

"Wh-what?" She stumbled backwards, out of character. Improvisation had never been her strong suit, but luckily Beck caught her hesitation and pushed onwards.

"You heard me!" He snarled. "You've been seeing my director on the side!" Tori took a moment to process his words before forcing herself back into character.

"I did what I needed to do for this family!" She shouted at him, sensing Jade and Robbie taking up positions behind her. "You were content with just being Jacob's lackey, but I made sure you were so much more than that!" Beck let out a hollow laugh.

"All I ever wanted was to make you happy!" He strode forward and grasped Tori's hands into his own. "Wasn't that enough?"

Tori yanked her hand from his. "No!" She shouted in his face, embarrassed to note that spittle covered his features. She would apologize to him later. "This family needs to be more than average, Becky Boy, and you know it! Jade has a real talent for the stage, and Robbie is a fantastic ventriloquist!" Taking her friends' actual skills made the scene play out easier in Tori's mind.

"You know how hard it is to make in this world, Tori," Beck accused. Tori flipped her hair over her shoulder and took another step forward, challenging him. "I know our kids are talented, but I think we should consider the real world implications."

Tori let out the loudest snort she could while remaining ladylike in her own mind. "You only want kids who will add to your own success, not those who will be successful on their own!" Tori accused with an appropriate slap to Beck's flawless cheek. The older boy recoiled from the contact, looked between Tori, Jade, and Robbie, and bowed his head.

"I know you three are so much better off than me, but is it so wrong for a man to be jealous of his children's accomplishments?"

"Yes," Jade snarled, her voice breaking into the fray for the first time. "If you ever cared for us, you would have been a bigger part of our lives much sooner." Beck winced, feigning pain by clutching his chest and backing up a few paces. Robbie stepped forward, capitalizing on the situation.

"And so what if I like Cat!" He shouted at Beck. Tori shared a confused look with Jade, but the other girl only shrugged with a quick roll of her eyes. "We don't need your permission to be together, we're in love!" Robbie jumped off the stage and tugged the redhead right onto stage with a victorious aura about him. Sikowitz and the rest of the class let out a series of gasps at the sudden "twist," while Cat just grinned at being included.

"Yay, I'm part of the scene now!" Cat giggled and leaned into Robbie's embrace. Tori knew that the grin and blush on Robbie's face was not part of the act.

"We've been over this Rob," Beck's jaw was taught as he looked between Robbie and Cat with believable disgust. "She's only ever going to drag you down. She's not good enough for you." For her part, Cat looked insulted while Robbie bowed his head, all previous bluster gone from his features.

"Just because you didn't marry for love doesn't mean you get to take it out on everybody!" Jade's voice hit Beck like a physical blow, and the boy recoiled. Tori decided to change up the scene and rounded on Jade.

"Jade!" She did her best to sound scandalized. "Even though things between your father and I aren't working out for the best right now doesn't mean we never loved each other!" To emphasize, Tori reached out a hand for Beck, who took it with hesitation. Jade's left eye twitched, but she kept rolling with the scene.

"Like I believe that!" She strode forward and slapped their intertwined hands. Tori was almost impressed with the other girl's restraint. "He's been screwing around on you for years." Tori let out her most believable gasp and backpedalled from Beck, a look of horror growing on her features.

"Is it true?" She tried to make her voice sound broken, and Beck bowed his head.

"You were always so… demanding." Beck said after a long moment of tense silence. "Do you know how much money it is to send two kids to their school? I had to work so much, so often, and you only ever—" He cut himself off and ran a hand through his long locks while turning to face the back wall. "Other women made it…easier." Tori could feel the sadness, regret, and determination in Beck's voice, as always impressed by her friend's acting skills.

"You…bastard! After everything…" She trailed off, burying her head in her hands and forcing herself to breath heavier. After a long moment of silence, and she was glad that none of her friends tried to fill it, she raised her head with her jaw set in a defiant grimace. "Jade, Robbie, Cat," she said, turning to the three teenagers. "We're leaving." She stepped forward, taking Jade and Robbie's hands into her own and led them off the stage. She heard Beck thump to the ground behind her, but did not look back. They were at the door when Sikowitz signaled the end of the scene with a round of enthusiastic applause.

"Excellent, excellent!" Their teacher praised as he bounded up onto the stage. "You all had me believing every last detail! Tori, Beck, you two were fantastic in selling your regret, determination, and sadness." Tori shared a grin with Beck at the compliment. "Jade, you were wonderful at playing to the scene and leading it forward." The dark haired girl crossed her arms with a small smirk. "And Robbie…" The boy stepped forward, as always eager to hear anything positive. "You certainly brought in the unexpected!" Robbie beamed at the comment, but Tori had to force back a snicker while Jade did not bother to hide her snort of amusement.

"Next group! Erik, Eli, Rebecca, and Andre…" The five of them shuffled off the stage and back to their seats. The rest of the class went by as group by group catered to Sikowitz's different scenarios. Tori let herself get lost in her classmate's performances, and put all of her worries on the back burner. By the time class was nearing its end, all of her earlier exhaustion and stormy mood were echoes at the edge of her mind.

"Well done everyone, well done!" Sikowitz proclaimed minutes before the bell would sound. "This is exactly what we'll be doing for the next month before summer break, when you'll all be on vacation in tropical places." He clapped his hands together, giddy as Tori had ever seen him. "We'll be cycling through so many different scenarios that your heads will spin, and you'll each wind up outside your comfort zone at least once!

"And," he continued, grabbing a top hat off the stage. "To cap it all off," Tori giggled at the pun while most of the others groaned. "We'll be splitting into groups of two for your final project. Front two rows, sign your name on something and toss it in the hat! Back rows get to pick." Sikowitz handed the hat to Tori, and she scribbled down her name on a spare sheet before passing it off. "Each pair will write a short, original scene featuring two characters. In three weeks, we will do another lottery, and each group will act out others' scenes at random! Exciting, right?"

"Sounds exhilarating," Jade deadpanned from the back. Sikowitz snatched the hat from Robbie before the boy could reach his hand in and shoved it toward Jade.

"Since you're so excited, why don't you be the first one to pick your partner, hm?" Jade rolled her eyes, but still reached in and fished through the papers for a good half a minute before pulling one. Tori had the distinct impression that the girl was trying to annoy Sikowitz, but the man was as cheerful as ever. Jade thumbed upon the folded strip of paper and her face darkened.

"No." She reached to put the paper back, but Sikowitz flicked her wrist and pulled the hat out of reach. Jade's eyes snapped to Sikowitz, promising pain and torment within their green depths, but the acting teacher had long since grown used to her.

"Well?" He prompted, tapping an impatient foot and crossing his arms. Jade's eyes cut to Tori for only a brief second, but that was all Tori needed to know.

"Vega." Jade's tone was clipped and she crossed her arms, fingers tapping an incessant beat on her jacket. Tori frowned. It was not her ideal partnership either, but the least the other girl could do was not act like she'd kicked a puppy.

Then again, Jade might have liked that…

"Splendid! Beck…"Tori tuned the teacher out and tore her eyes away from the annoyed girl when she felt her earlier headache returning in force. She had thought things were getting better ever since Yerba, but apparently Jade still did not like her. Tori let out a low sigh, wondering what else this day had in store for her.

"Hey, it's not that bad," Andre's voice broke her from her melancholy.

Again.

"You think?" She asked, a small flitter of hope growing at his confidence.

"Sure, as long you don't make her mad, she won't eat your soul." Tori's jaw dropped as Andre broke into a fit of quiet laughter.

"Jerk," she accused, but the hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. The staggered chime signaled the end of class, and most of the students were out the door before Sikowitz could get another word in edgewise.

"I'm just saying I'd be willing to trade with either of you!"Tori begged, adding as much whine into her voice as she could. All three of the boys and Cat looked unfazed by her pout.

"I'm sorry Toro," Tori scrunched her nose at the nickname. "But Beck and I just work really well together," Robbie explained. Tori spared a glare for her nerdy friend, but the boy just shrugged and turned his attention to his puppet.

"Besides," Rex 'spoke' up, "Seeing you so terrified of Jade is high-larious." Robbie snapped a hand over the puppet's mouth and gave Tori an apologetic look. She narrowed her eyes at him but let the comment slide. This time.

"It's true," Beck said, snapping up a fry. Her mouth hung open, not expecting the boy to agree with the puppet. He caught her expression and was quick to explain, "He and I always play off each other for some great scenes." Robbie reached up for a high five which Beck answered with an embarrassed wince. As their hands clapped together, Tori let her head rest on her propped up fist with a dejected sigh. If she could not get Jade's boyfriend to switch places with her, she was doomed.

"I don't think we should try to mess with Sikowitz's picks. Last time we tried, he got really mad." Tori harrumphed and slammed her head into her arms, realizing her fight was lost. None of them would trade their partners for Jade. It looked like she would be stuck with the unpleasant girl's company for the next few weeks without interruption. Joy.

"Hey," Jade said in a bored tone as she slid into her normal seat next to Beck. Tori sat up straight, refusing to reveal any weakness to the other girl even as Jade paid all of her attention to giving Beck a hello kiss. Without further ado, the girl dug into her lunch, not sparing anyone else at the table any attention.

Typical Jade. It was the same scene that played out every day. Leave it to Jade to just ignore the problem.

"So…" Beck began after a moment of uncomfortable silence. Tori had to hand it to the guy, he knew the effect his girlfriend had on people and always tried to fix it. "Any ideas on what type of scene you guys are going to write?"

"Horror," Jade said in between bites before anyone else could respond. Tori huffed at the girl's matter-of-fact response, but she was cut off by Robbie speaking up before she could object.

"I was thinking we could do a cool action scene!" He declared, putting a hand on Beck's shoulder. "I've been getting into those old karate movies lately. I even started practicing some moves."

"If you count jumping around your room like an idiot "practicing." "

"Rex!" Robbie's voice came out an indignant squeak, the others laughed, and Jade let out a light snort. Tori had to smile at the ridiculous image of Robbie running around his room like a little kid.

"Sounds cool," Beck agreed with an easy smile, ending the ventriloquist's roll of embarrassing himself before it could go to far. Tori rolled her eyes. That boy would agree to anything.

"Well," Andre interrupted, spinning his mac and cheese with his spoon while a blush darkened his cheeks. "I've been in the mood to write a really romantic song, so…" He snapped up a bite of the greasy goodness to his mouth and spoke around it. "I figured I'd turn that into a scene, if you know what I mean." Tori rolled her eyes, Jade shook her head, and the boys chuckled.

"I don't know what you mean," Cat declared, her brows furrowed in concentration. Everyone at the table glanced at each other and unanimously decided to move on.

"I wanted to do a romantic scene too," Tori declared, sparing her partner a glance. Jade just raised her studded brow.

"You would," she said, stabbing at her lunch with vicious thrusts of her fork. Tori had no idea whether or not to be offended.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tori asked in her best imitation of Cat. Jade rolled her eyes and stood from the table.

"I'm not really that hungry," she told Beck before turning on Tori. "I'm coming over your house later to get this project out of the way. Be ready." Before Tori could disagree with the girl's plans, she was gone.

"Sure Jade," Tori let the sarcasm drip from her tone after Jade was far from earshot. "I'd love to have you over this afternoon, why don't you stop by?" The others laughed, which did little to make her feel better. "Are you guys absolutely sure-"

"Yes, Tori," Andre cut her off before she could ask for the thousandth time. "None of us want to trade off with you." Tori looked to each of her friends, but each avoided her gaze with obvious humor. Tori felt herself glare at them, but held back any anger they most definitely deserved. She would get them back at some point.

"Fine," she snapped, snatching up a couple fries and taking comfort in their salty goodness. "But I'll remember this," she accused, wielding a fry in each of their faces for emphasis. Her friends were unperturbed.

"You usually remember everything!" Cat said in her cheery manner. Robbie, Andre, and Beck broke down into snickers and Tori let her head hang in defeat. She just could not win today.

"Anyone home?" Tori called as she walked through her front door with hesitant steps. Silence greeted her, and Tori was torn between relief and anxiety. She had no sooner stepped out of her sister's car before the older girl sped off to go shopping with her friends, and Tori dreaded facing the awkward atmosphere that had built up the past few days on her own. Her parents' absence meant that she had escaped that, for now, but it also meant she would have to be alone with Jade.

And that was always so much fun.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, the doorbell rang and Tori dragged her feet answering it. She swung the door open, revealing a bored looking Jade typing away at her PearPhone. The dark haired girl strode into the living room without a word, tossing down her backpack and slumping onto a couch without a second's hesitation.

"Hello to you too…" Tori muttered, shutting the door and heading for the kitchen. The silence in the house was only broken by Jade's fingers typing on her phone. "So…" Tori broke the quiet after it became clear that Jade was content for her to make the first move.

"I've already got it figured out," Jade declared, nodding toward the bag she had tossed down onto the couch. Eyebrow quirked in curiosity, Tori grabbed the bag, finding it empty save for a few stray pieces of paper and a well worn notebook. A tab was sticking out of the side, and Tori flipped it open to the marked page to find Jade's handwriting covering each sheet, front and back. She had outlined a complete idea for a scene that would satisfy Sikowitz's assignment. Despite the feeling of being left out, Tori could not help but be impressed that Jade came up with a full idea outlined so quickly.

Still, Tori would not let it go without her input. "This is…good," And terrifying, she added in her head. The scene was supposed to be about a pair of siblings hiding from a madman, and Jade's notes had the ending…less than happy. Jade gave a small shrug, the hint of a smirk on her face.

Tori dropped down on the couch next to her partner. "But don't you think I should be involved, you know, at least a little bit?" Jade rolled her eyes and stuffed her phone in her pocket.

"You," Jade said, giving Tori an intense look that the girl found she could not turn away from. "Should stick to singing and let me take care of the writing." Tori felt her hands ball into fists at the implied insult.

"I can so write," Tori declared while Jade just shook her head.

"Not as well as I can." Jade said it so matter-of-factly that it took Tori a minute to process what she had said.

"I—you…" Tori growled.

"What?" Jade asked, bringing a lock of her green extensions to her line of sight and examining it with the slightest narrowing of her eyes. "You know it's true." The worst part was that Tori knew that it was true; she was okay, but Jade was leagues ahead of anyone in their group when it came to writing, except maybe Andre.

And he could only ever write music…

Still…"You don't have to be such a gank about it," Tori huffed and stood, wringing her hands while trying to get her annoyance back under control.

Jade let her hair fall from her fingertips. "Is that the word of the day or something?" She gave her head a slight jerk, sending her hair flying over one shoulder. Her eyes begged Tori to rise to the bait, but she forced her own shut and let out a long, low breath.

"Look," she said in an even tone and met stormy green with steady brown. "Sikowitz will know I didn't have a part in this." She waved the notebook in Jade's face. "And I don't want to fail just because you couldn't swallow your pride and work with me." Jade rose from her seat, nostrils flaring.

"Swallow my pride." Jade's head nodded with each annunciated word. She reached out and snatched her notebook back from Tori. "I'm just trying to make this as painless as possible." Jade stuffed the book into her bag with more vigor than was strictly necessary.

"It didn't have to be painful at all!" Tori threw her hands wide, exasperated, as Jade scoffed. "Why are you like this all the time?" Jade shot her a dangerous look, but Tori was far past the point of caring. Sometimes it seemed like she was the only one that ever called Jade out.

"Like. What?" Jade's voice was ice, and her hands gripped her bag hard enough where Tori thought she heard the fabric strain in protest.

"Acting like we're not friends." Tori let the fight drain from her voice in a vague effort to calm the other girl down.

"We're not friends," Jade's answer snapped back so fast Tori recoiled.

"Why?" Tori, as long as she could remember, had always been a people pleaser. Most everyone liked her and she liked most everyone, and she often went out of her way to help people she considered friends. It had blown up in her face a couple times - faces of her few ex-boyfriends flitted through her mind - but it had almost always been worth it.

And she had been through so much with her friends at Hollywood Arts in the last half a year. From Sikowitz's zaniness, to dealing with ganks at Karaoke Dokie, to getting locked up in a foreign prison, they had gone through it all together. She could easily say that she was closer to these people than she had been to anyone before in her sixteen years.

Except for Jade.

No matter what happened, Jade would always have a snide remark, or would argue any point she could, or would mock Tori in some way or another. In some ways it was comforting, Tori had to admit, in that Jade was always Jade, but it still frustrated her to no end. And she was tired of trying to figure the other girl out, and - with everything that had been going on lately - she was out of patience.

For her part, Jade was standing rigid, her eyes hard. "Because I don't like you." She practically spat the words, but Tori brushed them off.

"You're lying." Tori did not know why she was sure, but there was no doubt in her mind that Jade did, in some way, care about her.

Before Jade could retort, though, the front door opened, and Tori's exhausted looking father stepped over the threshold with an armful of grocery bags. He stopped dead when he saw the two girls facing off in the middle of the living room. He blinked once, then twice, before he spoke up.

"Everything okay here?" The door swung shut behind him, its squeak the only thing breaking the tense silence. After a short moment Tori let herself relax and painted a smile on her face while Jade ran a hand through her black and green locks.

"Everything's fine," Tori could not keep the tiredness from her voice, but her dad seemed to accept it anyway. He trudged to the kitchen and set the bags down with a light grunt. "Where's Mom?" Her father froze for only a half a second, but it was enough for all of Tori's worries to come back full force.

"She, uh, decided to spend the night at your Aunt Sonya's," he explained with a forced smile. Tori felt a hand of ice grip her heart, but forced the feeling away to match her father's charade.

"So… what's with the shopping spree?" She teased, her father chuckled, and she felt more than heard Jade shift from foot to foot behind her.

"I figured I'd make my famous papas rellenas for you and Trina." He glanced about the room as if her loud sister would pop up from nowhere. "Where is she, anyway?"

"I think she's staying at Sarah's tonight." Her father's face fell and Tori felt a pang of empathetic pain for hm. Trina was gone more often than not, lately.

"Well," he said after a long pause, "I suppose that's for the best. It's been way too long since I've spent some quality time with my baby girl." He reached over the counter and took her hand in his, running a thumb over it in a soothing manner. Tori's heart broke by just how fragile her father's voice sounded.

"I…I should go." Jade's voice was near a whisper and Tori barely heard her. A glance over her shoulder showed her that the other girl was standing rigid, obviously uncomfortable with what she was witnessing. The realization that she was about to be left alone with her father, who seemed so defeated, made her decision making process go bananas.

"You should stay for dinner!" She blurted out before she could think about it. Jade looked at her as if she had grown a second head, and, considering they had just been in a heated argument, that probably wasn't far from the truth.

"That would be great!" Her father announced, a true smile lighting up his face. Jade froze, mouth open and ready to retort, and snapped her jaw shut. Tori mouthed a silent 'please' and the other girl rolled her eyes.

"I'd love to." She said, selling a genuine happiness to the older Vega. Tori nodded her thanks to Jade, who only shook her head with a slight narrowing of her eyes. Tori understood. She would owe the other girl a favor or two in the future.

Without further ado Tori and her dad broke into the bags to prepare his papas rellenas, otherwise known as stuffed potatoes. Jade took the time to scribble away at her notebook or text someone, probably Beck, on her PearPhone. The process was slow, peeling, mashing, stuffing, dipping, frying, but she and her father kept up idle chatter the entire time. Tori was careful to avoid any topic that came anywhere close to her mother.

"And, done!" Her father cheered with a flourish, lifting the latest batch out of the deep fryer with a wide grin. He dumped his haul on the growing platter of restuffed root vegetables. Tori's mouth watered at the sight, knowing that her father's dish was completely unhealthy but not caring in the slightest.

Jade walked over and gave the platter an experimental sniff. "So what's in these anyway?" Tori knew that Jade was putting on a cordial front and made a mental note to make it up to the girl with a coffee or something later.

"Trade secret I'm afraid," her dad said with a wink. Jade went so far as to pretend to pout before taking a seat and snatching the fried deliciousness onto her plate.

"Holy shit," Jade said once she took a bite, her eyes comically wide. Tori and her father both laughed at the genuine reaction.

"That's what I like to hear," her father declared before popping one of his fried treats into his mouth with a grateful grunt of appreciation.

"Amazing as always," Tori said, moaning around the delicious treat. Conversation from there was staggered as the odd trio focused on their 'meal,' but her father regaled Tori and Jade with stories of some of the crazier people he had seen at the precinct the past few weeks. As always, Tori was halfway torn between amusement and terror at her father's stories, but Jade was absorbing everything with rapt attention. Her father was more than willing to share his more gruesome stories with a willing audience, and when it grew too much for Tori's liking, she excused herself from the table to start cleaning up.

"…and he just grabbed his crotch," Her father said between breaths of laughter. Jade was cracking up across the table. "And starts humping in mid air. Just thrusting away." Jade broke down into giggles, and Tori's dad took a sip from his drink. "I swear that he thought the cells were full of women." Tori rolled her eyes, but Jade was now holding her sides in her attempts to breathe through the laughter.

"I don't know how you deal with all those people," Tori said with a slight frown while she rinsed her dish.

"Eh, you get used to it." He leaned back in his chair and reached a hand for hers, not caring that it was wet and soapy. "So tell me everything that's going on at Hollywood Arts."

"Well," Tori began, sparing a hopeful glance at Jade. "Sikowitz wants us to write a scene that a random couple of classmates will perform."

"He's the crazy one with the coconuts, right?" Both Jade and Tori laughed at that.

"Yeah, but we've had a bit of a disagreement over the type of scene we should write," Tori explained, sudden inspiration telling her to play the situation to her advantage.

"Oh?" Her father said, turning a curious gaze between the two girls.

"Jade wants to do a horror scene, but I want to do something else." Tori explained, ignoring the darker girl giving her a warning look through narrowed eyes.

"Well, the art of compromise goes back many generations." Her dad adopted a deeper voice and sounded amused as he glanced between the two girls.

"Well, compromise, is a foreign concept to—" Tori was cut off by the door squeaking open. All three of them froze in place as Tori's mother entered the house, standing rigid and eyes guarded.

"Holly…" Her father said, rising from his seat, his genial smile disappearing from his face. Her mother's eyes narrowed at the scene before her, and she lingered her gaze on Jade for a split second longer before she answered.

"I think I can spend the night in my own house," she declared, and Tori was lost. She knew that her parents were having trouble, but she just could not deal with it right now.

"Tori, Jade, could you please…?" Her father's voice was clipped, and Tori had to only look between the two before she knew she did not want to be anywhere near this conversation. She grabbed Jade's hand and dragged the other girl up to her bedroom, ignoring her friend's objections the entire way.

As soon as she closed her door, she could hear the muffled 'conversation' her parents were having. It was a familiar situation ever since the exact same scenario played itself out for the first time a week ago.

"I should really…" Jade's voice was hesitant, more unsure than Tori had ever heard it before, but Tori could not bring herself to appreciate the breakthrough. Her parents' voices echoed, muffled but clear in their intention, and Tori just wanted to be anywhere but there.

"Jade, please," was all Tori managed, holding out a hand. It went against everything she knew, knowing just how likely the other girl would just walk away from all the drama and tell her to deal with it herself.

Instead, Jade intertwined her fingers with Tori's, and stayed that way through her parent's argument ended hours later. Tori was not sure whether to be embarrassed or relieved, and so lost herself in the feeling of comfort of having a friend there to help her through this.

A/N: Well there's chapter one! I hope you enjoyed it and found my characterizations believable. I tried to take what Nick gave us and make them more reasonable, but that is a difficult challenge that only the best fanfic writers tend to get right. So let me know how I did! Your reviews will tell me whether or not this is an endeavor worth pursuing, and considering I have most of the plot worked out, I do hope you all loved it!

Until next time,

Dreyden